Herbal medicines or herbal drugs are of ancient origin and their use is known in cultures throughout the world. Chinese herbal medicine is among the earliest known examples of organized scientific study and formulation of herbal treatments. Herbalism is known to have been popular in China as early as 2500 B.C. Approximately at this same time, scripts appeared in India describing the healing powers of herbs. In India herbal medicine was termed "ayurueda" medicine, which gives us the modem term "ayurvedic," derived from "ayur," meaning life and "veda" meaning knowledge. In other words, ayurvedic medicine is regarded as derived from "knowledge of life," which reflects the empirical growth of herbalism as different natural products were found useful in treating human or animal ailments.
The practice of herbal medicine spread from Asia to Europe. The Greeks are known to have acquired knowledge of it over the period from 468-377 B.C. In turn, the Romans learned of it from the Greeks around 100 B.C. The Islamic world learned of and began to practice this science around the time the Roman Empire fell, in the 5th century. By the 10th century, the Anglo-Saxon world was practicing herbal science and describing it in writings. Throughout the middle ages, most herbalism was practiced under the authority of the church, which maintained the authority to grow medicinal herbs and to introduce new herbal medicines. Church control of herbalism continued despite the origin of several medical schools in the later middle ages.
European settlers brought herbal medicine with them to North America Perhaps not surprisingly, they found that Native Americans also used herbs to cure diseases. An early colonial New Hampshire herbalist, Samuel Thompson, integrated Native American and European herbal practices of the day. During the early 19th century, Thompson's theories on botanical practices of medicine were well recognized, and literature reports that three million people were following Thompson's principles.
A movement to identify individual active ingredients in beneficial herbs developed in the 18th century, leading into a transitional period from the use of natural herbs to the use of pharmaceutical drugs such as extracts and purified chemicals, sometimes referred to as allopathic drugs. With advances in chemistry, some of the active ingredients were chemically synthesized and given to patients in the form of pills. However, during this time of transition, the synthesized, purified or extracted active ingredients of pharmaceutical drugs first were observed to exhibit significant adverse side effects. Generally, herbal medicines do not produce significant side effects, perhaps because the active ingredients are combined with other compounds in the herb and administered in different dosages. In addition, herbs often are administered in combinations, which may nullify the side effect of any one herb. However, purified pharmaceutical drugs seldom are administered in combinations to offset each other's side effects, perhaps because even the offsetting drug is likely to produce its own side effects. It appears that modern medical practice accepts the presence of side effects as an adjunct to the improved purity and efficacy of pharmaceutical drugs. The notoriety of this problem is indicated by the industry-wide practice of providing data sheets with disclosure of known side effects, negative indications, and other cautions with substantially every allopathic drug, whether of the type requiring doctor's prescription or sold over-the-counter. Modern drug synthesis has the advantages of providing pure and potent drugs in large quantities and with considerable speed for wide availability. However, the accompanying problem of side effects is gaining increased notice as the public justly criticizes that such pure and potent drugs can cure one ailment while causing another.
As an example of an herbal remedy that led to a synthesized drug, in 1852 the artificial synthesis of salicin was considered to be a major advancement. Salicin is an active herbal ingredient found in willow bark. The Bayer Company launched the commercial sale of synthesized acetyl salicylic acid under the trademark, Aspirin, 1899. The pure acetyl salicylic acid commonly is known to be potent and effective, although possible side effects such as digestive upset and kidney damage are equally well known, although not observed in the days when the drug was administered via willow bark.
Other active herbal compounds have been extracted and chemically synthesized for use in the modern allopathic medical practice, with similar result. For example, Indian snake root, also known as rauwolfia serpentina, has been used in Indian ayurvedic medicine for centuries to cure anxiety, headaches, and high blood pressure. In 1947, the alkaloid, reserpine, was extracted from snake root and sold by Ciba Company to treat hypertension. Although the pure extract, reserpine, does reduce hypertension, it also exhibits adverse side effects such as severe depression and abnormal slowing of the heart beat. Such side effects were not seen when natural snake root was ground and administered to achieve similar beneficial results.
A significant problem with herbal medicine is that herbs are slow acting in treating an ailment In contrast, allopathic drugs act comparatively quickly. For this reason, medical practice prefers allopathic drugs as the effective means of treatment, even though the drugs have side effects. Clearly, it would be desirable to increase the speed by which herbal medicines act, but while maintaining the natural, herbal character of the medicine so as to avoid or minimize harmful side effects. An increasing number of people are gaining awareness of the advantages of herbal medicine together with a concern over the disadvantages of modern purified drugs. Consequently, there has been an increasing public interest in the use herbal medicines or ayurvedics, although the slowness of treatment remains a problem. Thus, many people consider herbs primarily useful as a maintenance or prophylactic treatment to be taken regularly in order to prevent onset of illness. A faster acting type of herbal medicine would create far broader utility.
Probiotics are bacteria or micro-organisms that are beneficial to the health of an individual. They are essentially an opposite of antibiotics, which are inhibitory to other bacteria, including probiotic bacteria. Probiotics are predominately lactic acid producing bacteria. In contrast to herbal medicine, probiotics developed as a science only recently; and this science remains unacknowledged by many medical practitioners. One of the earliest discoveries that bacteria can improve human health was by Dr. Metchnikoff, a Russian scientist, in 1907. Since then, there have been favorable reports about probiotics' utility, including, for example, that lactobacillus acidophilus reduces colon cancer in humans. Also, Russian scientists have reported that daily ingestion of lactobacillus bulgaricus and streptococcus thermophilous can improve human longevity. Several American scientists have reported that the level of blood cholesterol in humans can be reduced by orally ingesting lactobacillus acidophilus. These probiotic organisms are believed to exhibit therapeutic effects because of their innate ability to produce lactic acid and other substances that are inhibitory to harmful bacteria. These probiotic organisms naturally reside in the human intestinal tract, at receptor sites in the ileum (distal end of small intestinal tract) where they create a mildly acidic environment.
Probiotics are widely present in nature and serve many beneficial functions. Biologically, they are classified as plants. They are non-pathogenic, do not produce toxins, and are considered natural and organic. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted them GRAS (generally regarded as safe) status. They can be used in food preparation safely and are used extensively in the manufacture of dairy products such as yogurt, buttermilk, sour cream, and cheeses. They are used in dairy products primarily to preserve milk over a long period of time due to their ability to digest sugars and produce beneficial organic acids. They also make these food preparations flavorful. Probiotic organisms also have been used to improve the health of young animals such as calves and baby pigs.
These beneficial bacteria have an antagonistic effect on pathogenic bacteria, while antibiotics have an antagonistic effect on probiotics. Consequently, when a person is treated with antibiotics, the probiotics residing in the gastrointestinal tract can be killed, adding another complexity to the illness. To counteract this problem, some physicians prescribe the use of probiotics following use of an antibiotic in order to restore healthy gastrointestinal flora Some drug manufacturers combine probiotics and antibiotics, although such combinations may be poorly advised due to the inherent conflicting purposes of the two types of micro-organisms. One danger is that such combination may produce antibiotic resistant bacteria, which later might pass this characteristic to a pathogenic bacteria which no longer could be inhibited by that specific antibiotic.
It would be desirable to more widely employ natural agents such as herbal mixtures and probiotics in order to benefit from their safe and beneficial activity. In particular, it would be desirable to use natural agents to induce a more rapid response from herbal medicines by stimulating their beneficial action. The desirability of a combination of natural agents would be dependent, however, upon the continued absence of adverse side effects. Still further, it would be desirable to enhance the action of pharmaceutical drugs or reduce the likelihood of side effects by joining them with natural agents.
To achieve the foregoing and other objects and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the methods and products of this invention may comprise the following.